Mar 29, 2009

Many small news

There are many small things that go around. None of them is large enough to write a full post, so I am posting a single message about this "work in progress". So here is what I do these days:

I am involved in SEO activities a lot these days. Therefore I am studying SEO resources, such as Aaron Wall's seobook.com (I really like Aaron!) or seomoz.org. I used to work with SEO in the past but I am a bit obsolete in this area now. So I am learning new and changed stuff as fast as I can.

There is a review of the new "Learning ExtJS" book from Packt Publishing on this site. Check it out. The book is exceptionally good and useful for any ExtJS developer: from beginners to advanced. It is that rare type of the book, which is a must for any serious developer in this area.

I linked my Twitter profile to my Facebook profile. I did not really use Twitter before but now I plan to use it to keep both these accounts up to date with what I do.

I slowly drift away from the TYPO3 core development. This is less interesting for me now than it was for past several years. I plan to continue extension development and TYPO3 consulting but in a year or so I might change TYPO3 to something else. This decision grows for a couple of months already. Most likely I will focus on general web security, optimization, SEO and analytics.

I started spring clean up of the house. It is always good to reduce clatter and get rid of old stuff.

I feel that TYPO3 lost a lot when Kasper left it. Version 5 is not progressing fast enough (v5 guys are to excited in creating a perfect framework instead of making a perfect CMS). Version 4 looks and feels obsolete in UI. I expected lots of HCI improvements in v4 but they did not happen. Everything is limited to icons, spacing between controls, etc. Some features (like autoload) were posted to BT months ago and no one cares. TYPO3 v4 moves forward but it is a movement with a turned off engine. When the engine was working, it made a good speed. Now the whole thing moves just because there was a good speed before. But it will stop eventually.

May be I am too pessimistic but I think that TYPO3 is a dying product. If a miracle did not happen, it will be off the scene in 2-3 years.

I understand Dmitry and I don't know why you are all so sad because I am using TYPO3 just because it fits do my needs and not because it is TYPO3. If I find something new and better CMS, I will switch right away, of course!

Don't get me wrong, of course we all use TYPO3 because it fits our needs and not just because it IS TYPO3. But I do think we’re all connected in a way you don't often see with a software program. When an important developer leaves it always ‘hurts’.

At this moment TYPO3 is the perfect CMS for me. I'd hate to see TYPO3 dying just because of leaving developers. There’s so many exciting news about new functionality (caching, fe editing) but it feels like final releases are taking longer than expected. Even though I'm not involved in any core related teams or anything I do notice the absent of Kasper. I have to agree with Dmitry Kasper was a big loss.

If I find something new and better than TYPO3 I’d be surprised. Switching right away definitely not. I guess TYPO3 has become a piece of my life during the last 4 years. I’d considering switching only if development stopped or TYPO3 falls way back compared to other systems. At this moment TYPO3 development may be a bit slow, but I still have an optimistic view.

I don’t know about V5, since I’m more of an end user instead of a developer I’m waiting patiently to see some visuals. I thought I would have seen something by now.

"If I find something new and better CMS, I will switch right away, of course!"

Is it that easy? I practice TYPO3 since two years, got familiar with the coding concepts, the API, the way the community works, met TYPO3 guys, became a Certified Integrator.. For me that are reasons enough to support TYPO3 to keep it an excellent system. (Maybe Dmitry has a little bit more involvement in TYPO3 ;) )

If I go to any other CMS I have to start from zero again.

Of course you are basically right: If the system I work with is dying I have to look for something better, but from you (especially Georg) that sound like buying new shoes because the old ones are worn out. And at the moment IMHO TYPO3 is not dying. Version 5 is our chance to get rid of all old usability issues.

Guys, don't take my feelings that serious. It is just a feeling and it can be wrong. May be I am becoming too old (I am 36!) and start seeing only bad things :)

I see that TYPO3 does not fit my personal requirements in usability anymore and nothing significantly improves in that area. May be v5 will be better when it is out. But no one really knows how many more years it will take to get v5. v4 will be very obsolete in UI by that time unless something good happens.

I would be happy if usability becomes a primary target for version 4.4. Can that happen? I do not know.

Ow, and I must tell that I do not plan any work on usability in TYPO3. I though about that and had exact plans for what I called the "editor's backend". But than I decided not to do it. TYPO3 has a special HCI team. Let's let them do the HCI work for TYPO3 :)

Dmitry: Usability can become a primary target for version 4.4 if the community wants (or enough people want).

Someone had a good explanation for the lack of usability progress in TYPO3. Most developers don't care much about usability, because it's often boring to do. No new functionality, boring. Jens and others with good usability skills has a lot of good ideas, but few to do the dirty coding. Probably should T3A and others sponsor a real HCI/UI project.

Else, I'm not sure the HCI team is working well. A problem with a lot of TYPO3 teams.

Else, nearly always a good thing to change the focus of interests from time to time. Often it's necessary to grow.

The only thing the V4 is missing is a good FE editing engine, which is coming with version 4.3. I don't understand why not put all strength into V5 then, it is the next-gen CMS after all. I really see no reason for releasing 4.4, what feature is that important that deserves being in a system that we all will forget (as in not use anymore) when V5 comes out?

Maybe the teams are progressing slowly because they are divided into too many sections, which means that fewer people are assinged to a project thus slower progress...

I'd be really interested in any other CMS that can be handled as flexible as TYPO3 can be.

I tried a lot of Systems, but no one did fit my requirements to feel comfortable with. After all only MODx was able to give me a little good feeling, but the devlopment is far beyond T3. Any other CMS I tried had been way too "kiddish" to me. Not enought support, not enough community, too bad/inflexible API, etc.

But I confirm in that point, that TYPO3 development has slowed down. It's still moving forward, but not with that exceptional speed it growed over the last years.

The only alternatives I see out there at the moment are some commercial Java-Solutions - impressive in the way they handle FE-editing and so on. But not that powerful / not even possible or allowed to extend the system by your own.

I think T3 will be safe for the next 2-3 years in the OS market - and if we're lucky, there will be a version 5.0 which gives the fuck we all asked for and blows ANY other content management solution away..